[tech_joe]

part 2...

I think it is beyond obvious I have not sat idle after having to drop out of engineering school in my mid 20's. The above isn't a list of things I touched superficially. Each of the above skills represents (and came from) having to learn in order to perform at different jobs or for specific projects. Starting and running my own tech company forced me to learn even more. It was self-funded, which means I had to do it all for a long time.

...so, why is it that I can count interviews from job applications in the last, say, ten years, with two hands?

About seven or eight years ago a recruiter opened-up to me when he sensed my frustration. What he told me rattled me to some extent. He said nobody would hire me and suggested entrepreneurship was my only path. The way he put it was:

"The owner/CEO of a small to medium company won't hire you because, given your experience, they will be afraid you will learn their industry and become a competitor. The manager at a medium to large company won't hire you because they will be afraid you'll take their job."

That has been in the back of my mind for years now. At the same time, I hear so many stories from people who send out hundreds of resume's and never get so much as a smoke signal back. While I do wonder "What's wrong with me?", I also ask myself whether the problem really centers about hiring practices today. You'd think many companies would jump at the opportunity to have someone like me contribute to their mission. Yet, nothing...

And there's the question of age discrimination, which is a real thing in tech.

[d--b]

Age discrimination definitely.

But also, your resume is to stuffy to be true. I don't believe for a second that you can have proficency at all these skills. That's just not possible. You may have cobbled things using these techs or worked with people who knew these things well, but you can't possibly be an expert at all these things.

Aim for an expert job. Find the skill you master most and look for the jobs who look for that. Look for jobs where being older is being better (Assembly, C++, for instance are technologies that younger people don't learn). Trim your resume to: "I am an expert at X, which I have done here here and there, I've also been doing some other stuff".

Don't fall for "CEOs/managers wont hire me because I am too good". That's bullshit agent talk to hide their mediocrity behind a veil of praise.

Good luck

[tech_joe]

> I don't believe for a second that you can have proficency at all these skills. That's just not possible. You may have cobbled things using these techs or worked with people who knew these things well, but you can't possibly be an expert at all these things.

Thanks for your comment.

It's always interesting to me when "That's just not possible", or a similar comment, surfaces. Not much I can say other than, no, it's true. And, no, it isn't about cobbling things together and claiming the work of others.

There's nothing on that list that I could not do immediately or get back up to speed within, say, 30 days or less. For example, last time I used LISP or FORTH was probably in the mid 90's. When I did work with these languages, I built non-trivial applications and worked on them for years. Can I write a Forth application today? Well, no, not without getting back into it, which will take just a few weeks. It's like ridding a bike, you don't really forget.

> you can't possibly be an expert at all these things

Not what I am claiming at all. In fact, almost nobody is an expert at most of what they put on their resumes. I have a few areas of expertise that I would consider to be much deeper than the average engineer. And, in fact, those are the areas where I find consulting work most readily. If I had to describe myself in one sentence I would probably say something like: I can fully engineering just-about any product from scratch, no matter the technology or disciplines involved. Of course, there are boundaries, I am not about to claim I can design a nuclear reactor. We have to be reasonable. I've worked on everything from embedded to robotics, aircraft simulators and things that have gone into space. So, yeah, those skills are real and applied.

Like I said, I don't sit idle very well. Always learning.

[d--b]

> I have a few areas of expertise that I would consider to be much deeper than the average engineer.

That’s what needs to stand out. For the rest, it’s better to talk about the things you built rather than the tech you used to build it.

Say: “I designed a smart thermostat from hardware to plastic injection”, and then if the guy asks what you used, brag about the tech, it’ll impress a lot more.

[re-thc]

> Don't fall for "CEOs/managers wont hire me because I am too good". That's bullshit agent talk to hide their mediocrity behind a veil of praise.

Then dumb it down. Use 50% of your skills / experience. Pretend you don't know some of these things. Like if that's actually the truth it's quite easy to solve.

[zhxshen]

> "The owner/CEO of a small to medium company won't hire you because, given your experience, they will be afraid you will learn their industry and become a competitor. The manager at a medium to large company won't hire you because they will be afraid you'll take their job."

I'm mid 40s & in the same boat. Entrepreneurship probably is the only option. It is what it is.